The Extras
I was very surprised to see so many special features on this disc; in fact, there are so many that you have to click ‘more’ to see the complete list, which has a commentary by director Raja Gosnell, featurettes such as "Yours, Mine & Ours - Inside the Lighthouse," "18 Kids - One Script: The Writing of Yours, Mine & Ours," “Your Big Break! - Advice for Aspiring Young Actors,” “Setting Sail with the Coast Guard,” and a behind the scenes Video Diary. Plus two theatrical trailers, deleted scenes and two casting videos.
I especially liked the two separate featurettes on "Casting the North Family" and "Casting the Beardsley Family," which included a discussion with the casting director on the process for choosing each child actor and thoughts on each actor’s talents and contributions.
There are two deleted scenes with the optional director commentary. One scene the hit the cutting room floor better explains the parents' relationship and shows the marriage proposal. The other deleted scene first shows the families meeting each other. I liked both scenes and thought if included it would have helped make the film less choppy-feeling and thrown-together. They were probably removed to improve the run time, but I’d rather have seen these two scenes than some of the many Cheaper by the Dozen child antics. I especially could have done without the one near the end when the kids form a human chain out a window in order to hold on to a computer - it was pointless and we were already shown on numerous occasions what trouble they were capable of.
The Delivery
The DVD is available in both 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and Full Screen 1.33:1 editions. The audio tracks come in English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), and French (Dolby Digital 5.1). The DVD also includes English and Spanish subtitles.
Article comments